Wood is definitely a lovely option for kitchen floors but some areas are better off with tiles. You can have a practical design that also looks exquisite by combining wood with marble tiles in a manner that gives them both an artistic look.

For those instances where a widely open floor plan just doesn’t make sense or look well, it’s certainly not a bad idea to incorporate some sort of design elements that will resemble walls for you. Just be sure that they lean more toward Swiss cheese (plenty of visual “holes” and gaps) than toward a thick slice of cheddar. Leaving the top third of the vertical plane empty also helps to maintain a feeling of openness while still defining the smaller spaces.

Once in place, hot water radiant heating tubing can be covered up with most types of flooring, although carpet isn’t ideal due to its insulative qualities, which end up counteracting the whole heating idea. Although the upfront installation costs are more, hot water radiant heating is the most popular and cost-effective way to heat a whole house – this system can be up to 30% more efficient than forced-air heating.